The Young Filmmakers Contest celebration started in September with a screening of the top 10 winning films and will continue with an exclusive virtual screening of all seven Honorable Mention films on Saturday, Oct. 24. This is a chance to see these stories in their entirety and support these young filmmakers whose films were just a hair’s breadth away from a top prize. Tickets are free, but registration is required to receive the link.
Travel to Earth’s core, listen to an AI bird translator, discover goats preventing forest fires, and more. View all 10 winning short films from the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, in person at Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago, or online virtually anywhere in the world. Be ready to stretch your imagination and expand your understanding of going green. A special online screening for those in Asia/Pacific will also be available.
I recently attended the year-end wrap-up webinar from Our Children’s Trust (OCT), and there’s a lot going on! For those who don’t know, OCT is a nonprofit public interest law firm in Eugene, Oregon, dedicated to securing a healthy atmosphere and safe climate for young people.
Their federal, state, and international lawsuits push governmental bodies to recognize environmental harms, especially as they affect the health and lives of young people. Every case, win or lose, strengthens the next, empowering the young people who have stepped up to be plaintiffs and building a body of testimony from those plaintiffs and expert witnesses, including public health professionals and climate scientists. An overarching goal of OCT cases is to clarify the government’s constitutional obligation to protect the environment, thereby ensuring the right to life—yes, right to life (and to liberty and the pursuit of happiness)--of our earth’s young people.
The annual One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest Global Awards Celebration is gearing up to take place at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, both in person at the Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, Illinois, and online virtually anywhere in the world. Featuring the top 10 winning films from among almost 400 submissions, this event is the third with global reach since the contest started 13 years ago.
As I write this (July 2025), the air quality in Chicagoland (where I live) is labeled unhealthy for sensitive groups. In addition, the National Weather Service has issued an “extreme heat watch,” noting that over the next two days, residents can expect dangerously hot conditions with possible heat index values of 105˚ -110˚ . Elsewhere on our planet, devastating tornadoes, floods, forest fires, and extreme heat bring death and destruction, test bodies and spirits.
See a futuristic battle over the last available fresh water resource, peer at wildlife living in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, hear an ironic love song about a polluting power plant, and more. View all 10 winning short films from the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, in person at Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago, or online virtually anywhere in the world. Be ready to stretch your imagination and expand your understanding of going green. A special online screening for those in Asia/ Pacific will also be available.
